Feed grinder



Jam 1963 1.. N. CHRISTENSEN ETAI. 5

FEED GRINDER Filed July 5, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 mmvrom Lara MCfi/v'afemn, BYWarren L- Sfrunb" Jan. 22, 1963 1.. N. CHRIS'II'ENSEN ETA]. 3,07

FEED GRINDER 2 Sheets-Sheet.2

Filed July 5, 1960 INVENTORS Lara N Chria e BY Warren L- y -39 United States Patent 3,074,656 FEED GRINDER Lars N. Christensen, Viborg, S. Dak., an

Warren L. Strunk, Crofton, Nebr. Filed July 5, 1960, Ser. No. 40,728 1 Claim. (Cl. 241-247) Our invention relates to a feed grinder.

An object of our invention is to provide a feed grinder having eflicien't characteristics, in that a pair of opposed grinder plates will rotate in opposite directions to thereby increase the effective speed of grinding.

A further object of our invention is to provide a structure in which the opposite rotation of said plates is provided in a compact drive arrangement, and to provide means whereby the entire unit can be driven by one shaft only.

A further object of our invention is to provide a feed grinder in which the spacing between the plates can be regulated as desired.

A further object of our invention is to provide an ef ficient feed grinder which can be manufactured at a reasonable cost.

With these and other objects in view, our invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combination of the various parts of our device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in our claim, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional plan view taken substantially along the lines 1-1 of FIGURE 2,

FIGURE 2 is a side view of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken along the lines 3-3 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a sectional View taken along the lines 44 of FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 5 is a sectional detail.

Our invention contemplates the provision of a feed grinder which will grind feed to the desired consistency and which will handle any type of feed required, and which is in a relatively compact structure, and to provide the other advantages mentioned hereinabove.

We have used the character to designate a top wall, the character 11 a bottom wall, the characters 12 and 13 indicating end walls, and the characters 14 and 15 indicating side walls.

Journalled at 16 within the wall 15 is a shaft 17 which can be powered by any desired source, and rigidly attached to the shaft 17 is a bevel gear 18 which meshes with a further bevel gear 19, which bevel gear 19 is securely attached to a further shaft 20, which is journalled at 21 in the wall 13. Receiving the shaft is an outer hollow shaft 22 to which is securely attached the further bevel gear 23, and formed from the shaft 22 is a helical conveyor unit 24 which passes transversely beneath a rectangular hopper housing 25 which communicates with the upper hopper portion 26. Rigidly attached to the end of the hollow tube 22 (see FIG. 4) are the spokes 27 which are attached to an annular ring 28, and formed on the ring 28 are the raised projecting ribs 29 which are adapted to assist in the grinding action.

Spaced from the ring 28 is a circular plate 30 which includes a similar ring formation as the ring 28 and the ribs 29, this plate 30- including an extending hub portion 31 (see FIGURE 5) which includes a key-way 32 in which key-way is adapted to slide the key 33, which key is attached to the shaft 20.

Attached to the hub portion 31 are the spaced ring elements 34, and received between the elements 34 is a circular ring 35 having the vertical pins 36, which pins 36 are recived within the fork elements 37 (see FIG- URE 3) which fork elements are pivoted on the vertical bar 38 which is attached at 39 to the bottom wall 11.

3,074,656 Patented Jan. 22, 1963 The fork elements 37 are joined as at 40 (see FIG URE 3) and are pivotally attached as at 41 to the ears 42 which are attached to a cylindrical member 43 which is threadably engaged at 44 with a rod 45 which passes through an ear 46 at 47 and is attached at 48 to the knurled button 49. A pair of collars 50 are attached to the rod 45.

The members 40 pass through the slot 51 in the casing wall 14. The shaft 20 is journalled at 52 in the wall 12.

Attached to the plate element 30 are a pair of lugs 53 which are spaced slightly from the plate 30 so that during rotation, these lugs will serve to clean the peripheral borders of the plates.

The character 54 indicates a slide which is received through a suitable slot in the portion 25, which slide 54 includes the upwardly turned handle portion 55, this arrangement serving to regulate the supply of material passing into the unit.

The character 56 indicates a substantially cylindrical hollow casing receiving the plate portions 28 and 30, and communicating with the casing 56 is the lower discharge portion 57.

Positioned beneath the housing portion 25 are the walls 58 which communicate with the semi-cylindrical portion 59 (see FIGURE 1), the portion 59 communicating to the ring 28, the casing 56 including an opening at 60, which opening will communicate with the spaces 61, which spaces are open and which are provided between the spokes 27.

The device operates in the following manner. The hopper 26 is filled with the feed which is to be ground, and the drive shaft 15 is operated from any suitable source. It will be noted that this drive shaft, due to the various bevel gears, will drive the shaft 20 in one direction and will drive the hollow shaft 22 in the opposite direction, thereby driving the ring 28 and the plate 30 in opposite directions to each other, and in this way the effective relative speed between these plate elements will be doubled. The material is conveyed by means of the conveyor blade or unit 24 directly through the openings 60, so that in this manner the feed is ground and divided in an efficient manner, with the feed then being discharged through the lower discharge portion 57.

The distance between the rotating plates can be regulated for different types of feed if such is required, by merely rotating the knob or button 48, which rotation will move the members 43 and 42 in either direction through the slot 51, which will carry the plate 30 in either direction, the plate 30 being constantly drivingly engaged with the shaft 20 due to the construction shown in FIGURE 5, so that in this manner the adjustment between the plates is readily provided.

The slide 54 will provide means for regulating the size of the opening for the feed in the hopper member 25.

It will now be seen that we have provided the advantages mentioned in the objects of our invention with further advantages being apparent.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of our invention without departing from the real spirit and purpose of our invention, and it is our intention to cover by our claim any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within its scope.

We claim as our invention:

A feed grinder comprising a casing, an inner rotatable shaft in said casing, an outer shaft receiving said inner shaft, a helical conveyor attached to said outer shaft, a ring-shaped plate having radial spokes attached to said outer shaft, said ring-shaped plate including a grinding face, a further plate secured to said inner shaft, means for driving said inner shaft and said outer shaft in opposite directions, means for adjusting the spacing between said ring-shaped plate and said further plate, in-

able lever member pivotally secured to said collar, the

spacing between said radial spokes providing means whereby feed will enter between said further plate and said ring-shaped plate from said conveyor, aid driving means for said shafts including a main drive shaft, a

bevel gear attached to said main drive shaft, a further bevel gear attached to said inner shaft and operated by said bevel gear, a still further bevel gear attached to said outer shaft meshing with said bevel gear, means for moving said adjustable lever member including a threaded socket attached thereto, a rod threadably engaged with said threaded socket, means for rotating said rod, a pair of lugs attached to said further plate and being slightly spaced from the peripheral boundaries of said ringshaped plate for cleaning the peripheral boundaries of said ring-shaped plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,581,969 Longaker Apr. 20, 1926 2,068,071 Quehl Jan. 19, 1937 2,113,040 Anderson Apr. 5, 1938 2,549,275 Wood Apr. 17, 1951 2,550,301 Scott Apr. 24, 1951 

